It comes in different sizes and styles, radiating crisp images that brighten even the darkest room or dreary tailgate. Work can bog you down, life can throw you for a loop, but the television set stays securely mounted in your heart.

It's a story about how Alabamians consistently watch primetime TV -- especially reality shows -- more than the nation. It's about how college football isn't the only game Birmingham tunes into more than most Americans. And it's even about how Birmingham loves watching kids spell impossibly difficult words.

True story. Birmingham was ESPN's third-rated market for the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee and more than twice as likely as the country to watch it. Only Kansas City and Memphis drew a higher percentage of people who elected to watch a 14-year-old spell "guetapens," which means an ambush.

"The spelling bee contains some, if not all, of the same elements as 'American Idol' or 'Dancing with the Stars' -- competition, elimination, victory, defeat," said Amy Soverow, former research director at Birmingham's Fox 6 and research manager at the Birmingham News. "We seem to like how those stories play out here in Alabama."

There is no precise way to definitively measure the overall TV viewership of Alabama and individual cities compared to the country. Ratings for Mobile and Huntsville are more difficult to acquire since, unlike Birmingham, they are not in markets regularly measured by the networks.

But bits and pieces of viewership data collected from Nielsen, ESPN, ABC and Fox show a picture of this state's viewing habits.

You love TV -- a lot.

College football all the time

Ilan Ben-Hanan, ESPN vice president of college sports programming, was blown away by two sets of TV numbers he recently looked at for Birmingham.

The 2012 BCS Championship Game drew a 61.2 household rating, meaning 61.2 percent of all television households in Birmingham watched Alabama defeat LSU. (That doesn't account for people watching in bars or using other technological devices.) One month later, the Super Bowl drew a 50.9 in Birmingham.

"The Super Bowl is always the bellwether for everything," Ben-Hanan said. "That pretty much tells you all you need to know about Birmingham. There are things out there that are mind-boggling in that market. It's really off the charts."

The Birmingham designated market area consists of 21 counties, extending as far north as Marion and Cherokee and as far south as Greene and Coosa. These are the counties that comprise the nation's most passionate college football audience, often in man caves designed for the sole purpose of watching football.

Out of 56 metered U.S. markets, Birmingham has won ESPN's college football ratings for 10 straight seasons. Only Birmingham and Columbus, Ohio finished in the top five all 12 years from a recent analysis by ESPN. The 12 highest single-game ratings in ESPN's college football history all belong to Birmingham.

This doesn't, of course, mean Birmingham has the most viewers. Cities with larger populations carry that distinction. Rather, the percentage of Birmingham-area residents watching college football exceeds anywhere else in the country.

"The fans in the Birmingham market are rabid," Ben-Hanan said. "Frankly, they tune in when it's not even their own teams."

The story could end there and no one would be surprised.

Except it doesn't. You watch ESPN -- a lot.

During 2011, Birmingham had the nation's highest rating for all-day programming on ESPN, 84 percent above the national average. Birmingham was No. 2 on ESPN2 all-day programming behind only Knoxville, Tenn.

ESPN's stranglehold on Birmingham can't only be attributed to college football. You're watching other sports, too.

Birmingham somehow produced higher ratings for professional and college basketball than Las Vegas, the home of legalized gambling. So either you love basketball or you love gambling -- or both.

Birmingham ranked second on ESPN's NBA regular-season broadcasts last season behind only Memphis and slightly ahead of Las Vegas. Birmingham was also above the national average for Major League Baseball, NFL, college basketball and NASCAR, but below the country's viewing appetite for Wimbledon and the X-Games.

"The thing that really stands out in Birmingham is the sports," said Mike Murphy, general manager for ABC 33/40 in Birmingham. "It's easy to predict on our end there will be a demand for the advertisers."

Before the Alabama-Michigan opener on ABC this season, ABC 33/40 aired a one-hour show from Dallas with sports anchor Mike Raita. The pregame telecast drew a 10.6 rating -- more than one in every 10 households -- even with Auburn-Clemson playing on ESPN at the same time. Alabama-Michigan followed with a 37.4.

Advertising rates for a typical Alabama game have been known to be $12,000 per spot or higher. Airing the Crimson Tide in an SEC or national championship game can push $20,000 to $25,000 per commercial for local stations.

When the SEC shopped its syndicated rights several years ago, many local affiliates across Alabama aggressively tried to land the league's games because of college football's value.

"You look at it from a revenue standpoint and then you look at it as a promotional vehicle," said Murphy, whose station missed out acquiring the SEC. "It allows you to reach a different audience and introduce your products and other programming to them."

Competitive TV watching

You watch more than just sports, Alabama. Reality TV scores big, too.

In some parts of the state, you are almost twice as likely as the nation to watch "American Idol," with Huntsville exceeding the 2011-12 U.S. average by 98 percent and Birmingham topping it by 83 percent. Even Mobile was up 37 percent over the country.

Birmingham tuned in to "X-Factor" 92 percent above the national average, and Huntsville was up 66 percent. Birmingham was the sixth-rated metered market for "Dancing with the Stars," averaging a 15.5 rating that topped the nation by 24 percent.

We like "reality" in the business world, too. Birmingham is the nation's No. 8 market for "Shark Tank," a show about a panel of entrepreneurs and executives who seek investments for their products.

"'Idol' has a very Alabama-centric history of winners and finalists so there could be some halo effect from these earlier seasons that made viewing a deeper habit than was the case in other markets," said Soverow, the research manager. "'Dancing with the Stars' also does well, so perhaps our need to watch competition and cheer for favorites runs deep, especially outside football season."

There's more you're watching. Birmingham is the No. 2 market for the sitcom "Last Man Standing" (51 percent over the U.S. average), No. 4 for the drama "Private Practice," and No. 7 for the drama "Revenge." Birmingham also exceeds the national average for several other dramas.

"I was actually a bit surprised at the consistent nature of that trend," Soverow said.

These trends occur as the country's viewing habits change. In order for Nielsen to count a TV household, at least one set in a home must have a receiver, such as an antenna, satellite, cable or U-Verse. That doesn't count homes where people consume TV through video.

The number of TV households in the U.S. declined by about half a percentage point between 2012 and projections for 2013. The Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile and Huntsville markets lost 1.5 percent of TV households, greater than the national average.

Birmingham was down 3 percent and its market rank dropped from 39th to 42nd. Montgomery dropped about 1 percent. Mobile and Huntsville were down less than the national average.

Yet Alabama viewers have been quicker to embrace satellite distribution. While Birmingham, Huntsville and Mobile are all below the national average of cable penetration (60 percent), those cities are far more likely to have satellite TV.

"It is kind of a paradox," Soverow said. "There's a traditional attachment to some programming, but also a willingness to embrace new technology."